Flight Blog

The holidays are the time of year when infrequent (or first time) fliers fill the nation's airports. With that thought in mind the we offer the following tips for infrequent fliers -

Use an airline app. Nearly all airlines have free smart phone apps that let customers make and change reservations. The apps also offer real-time flight updates and downloadable boarding passes. Using an airline app can save lots of time at the airport.

Get to the airport early - at least an hour-and-a-half before your flight is scheduled to leave. That's generally plenty of time to get checked in, through security, and to the gate. You must be checked in to your flight no later than 30 minutes before departure.

Don't over-pack. Take only what you absolutely need -- an overstuffed bag can slow down the security screening process. Carry-on items can be no bigger than 9" X 14" X 22" or a total of 45 linear inches.

Before you get to the security screening line make sure you have a government issued photo ID if you're 18 or older. Make sure the name on your boarding pass matches the name on your photo ID.

Don't wrap presents. Security screeners may unwrap them for inspection.

Speaking of security screening ...

This holiday season sees a change in passenger security screening. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is now using millimeter wave scanners at the Springfield airport to screen passengers before they board the plane.

TSA says millimeter wave scanning reduces the need for physical pat downs and results in a smoother flow of passengers through the security checkpoint.

A millimeter wave scanner is a large booth with glass walls. Passengers step inside and hold their arms over their heads for a few seconds. The scanner looks for explosives and weapons without physical contact. It takes about 20 seconds to scan a person, while a pat-down takes two to four minutes.

Older versions of this technology caused privacy concerns because the screening images were anatomically correct. TSA officials say the new machines (image to the right) show generic outlines of people, without the anatomic detail.

If someone doesn't want to be scanned they can opt-out. According to TSA those opting out will be screened using "alternative methods," including a physical pat-down.

The last four months of the year are supposed to be slow times in the airport business. It's when vacations are over, the kids go back to school, and the number of people flying takes a proverbial dive. This year it's different at the Springfield airport — in September the total number of people using the airport rose 16.3 percent (that's compared to the same month last year). It's the best September performance since 2005 when the increase was 18 percent.

Delta Air Lines gets a lot of the credit for September's growth: on September 1 the airline began using a Boeing 717 for one of its five daily flights between Springfield and Atlanta. The bigger plane brought 60 more seats a day to Springfield. That meant that Delta grew its September passenger numbers in Springfield by 28.6 percent! But the other airlines grew their numbers too ...

AIRLINE

SEPT. CHANGE IN TOTAL PASSENGERS

American

+ 21.8%

Delta

+ 28.6%

United

+ 3.3%

Allegiant

+ 3.7%

At this pace we'll have more than 800,000 total passengers by the end of the year. That's happened only four times in the airport's history: in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009.

The number of people using the Springfield airport has been up since the first of year, but as the year progresses it’s becoming increasingly clear that the growth is not limited to Springfield. Other airports, approximately our size, are also seeing double digit growth.

It's worth mentioning because all of us have a tendency to view things from a local perspective. Even in today’s wired age it’s sometimes easy to forget that what happens in Southwest Missouri is tied to happenings across the nation, and the globe. Such is the case with airport passenger numbers.

Let’s take a look at total passenger growth at airports in the region, for the period January – August of this year:

(XNA) Northwest Arkansas: + %10.73

(FSM) Ft. Smith: + 6.77%

(LIT) Little Rock: - 5%

(TUL) Tulsa: + 4.6%

(SGF) Springfield-Branson: + 11.9%

Note that the airports with the largest growth are XNA and SGF. Besides similar growth numbers, both of these airports have something in common: from year to year they are roughly the same size in terms of passenger numbers and total number of commercial flights.

Now let’s look at passenger numbers for five airports that are much like ours in terms of population served, personal income, and per capita personal income. Here they are, along with their percentage change in passenger numbers for the period January-June, 2014:

So what’s the point? The point is that many airports our size are seeing significant growth this year; it’s not just happening in Springfield. There are several reasons for this, but I think there’s one that really stands out: between 2008 and 2011 the airlines made huge cuts at these airports (we saw a 22% cut in the number of available seats in 2011). The airlines cut back so much that passenger demand soon outpaced the number of available seats. So now the airlines are bringing seats back to these markets in order to meet demand.

Statistics tell us that flying is one of the safest ways to travel. At the Springfield airport we do our part to make sure it stays that way — for the tenth year in a row we’ve received a discrepancy free safety inspection from the Federal Aviation Administration.

On Monday the FAA recognized our success by awarding us the “Airport Safety Enhancement Award.” The award goes to airports which receive discrepancy free safety inspections three years in a row. Getting one discrepancy free inspection is a great accomplishment for any airport. Doing it ten years in a row is a rare achievement. Airfield maintenance worker, Troy Morehouse, sums it up best. “It’s like winning the Academy Award for best picture.”

The annual FAA safety inspection is a demanding review of everything at the airport that affects aircraft safety. If an airport can’t hack it, airlines can’t, and won't, fly there.

FAA inspectors review a long list. It includes runway pavement condition, airfield marking and lighting, the readiness of the airport fire department, snow and ice removal, security … it’s a very long list.

“It’s so vast. It has to do with fencing, with the height of grass, with wildlife ...” says Morehouse.

ANIMAL CONTROL

Wildlife was a hot topic with the public five years ago after a flock of Canada geese brought down a US Airways flight after take-off from New York City (the plane landed in the Hudson River with no loss of life). But airports have talked about wildlife for years — as in, "how do we control it?"

The airport must show FAA inspectors that it knows what wildlife is on the airport, and that it has a plan to deal with it.

Troy Morehouse retrieves a dead bird from a runway then logs the location on an airport map.

“Runway inspections are one way we track wildlife,” says Morehouse. You look for any remains of an animal hit by an aircraft. We collect it and record where it was found on the runway.” Even small birds get attention. “Smaller birds can be very dense. So when a plane hits them it’s almost the equivalent of getting hit by a baseball.”

Some wildlife control methods are obvious — like shooting off pyrotechnics to scare off birds. Other methods are more subtle. Suppose, for example, that a certain breed of hawk suddenly shows up in numbers. Airport staff might try to figure out what the hawks are eating — are there more rabbits in the area than before? To control the hawk population you might have to do something about the rabbits.

AIRCRAFT CONTROL

When an aircraft is on the ground it depends on airport lights, signs and paint to figure out where to go. The Springfield airport has about 1400 lights along the edges of the runways and taxiways. Add to that several hundred signs, along with miles and miles of painted lines. If you could put all the paint in a six inch line it would be 40 miles long. And all of it — lights, signs, paint — has to be nearly perfect.

“Each of those lights has its own transformer, so there are hundreds of transformers,” says Morehouse. “And miles and miles of cable connect all those lights.” It all has to work.

Dozens of aircraft navigate the ground everyday at our airport. The fact that they do so safely is a testament to the hard work and dedication of airport staff.

After so many years of acing the inspection is there anyway to make things even better? Morehouse says there is ...

"We all try to better ourselves every day and improve on what we've done. That may sound kind of crazy — we've done so well the past 10 years — I mean what is there left to improve on? There's always something to improve on."

Only a few of the airport's hundred+ employees are seen here. Please know that everyone pitches in to make the airport's safety culture possible. This Thursday, September 18, the Airport Board, along with airport administration, will honor them all. The meeting begins at 8:00 am in Board Room, which is located in the main terminal building. Feel free to join us.

We’ve got an interesting air fare war going on in Springfield . We haven’t seen this sort of thing since before the recession.

Here’s what’s going on — bear with me ... this gets complicated!

Right now both United and American are matching round trip fares between Springfield and Atlanta for $404.

That may not sound like a big deal but here’s the thing: neither of those two airlines fly non-stop from Springfield to Atlanta. They’ll have to fly you from Springfield through Chicago, or Dallas, to get to Atlanta. Delta, on the other hand, does fly non-stop between Springfield and Atlanta.

So here’s the deal: United and American are taking dead aim at Delta’s passengers flying non-stop between Springfield and Atlanta.

Not to be out done Delta is taking aim at United and American non-stop flights between Springfield and Chicago: Delta is offering round trip fare from Springfield to Chicago for $430. Since Delta doesn’t have non-stop flights from Springfield to Chicago, you’ll have to fly through Atlanta.

Now $430 may not strike you as being a bargain fare. But here’s the deal: United often charges over a thousand bucks for the Springfield to Chicago round trip …

Fair warning: If you go looking for these fares you’ll discover that they’re not available on all flights, and for all dates. Many of the deals will be found for travel in the 4th quarter. So keep on looking and good luck!